TEHRAN – Iranian movies “The Apple Day” and “Adjustment” have won awards at the 39th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (CICFF).

Directed by Mahmud Ghaffari, “The Apple Day” received the Liv Ullmann Peace Prize for Feature Film as the winners of the U.S. festival were announced on Sunday.
 
While studying letters in their first-grade class, Mehdi is asked to bring in apples (“seeb” in Farsi) for his classmates on the day the letter “S” is to be covered due to his father being a fruit seller. However, tragedy falls upon the family business and this request becomes especially challenging for Mehdi to complete. With the help of his brother Saeid, Mehdi attempts to find thirty apples in time for his lesson amidst his parents attempting to make ends meet.

The short drama “Adjustment” by Mehrdad Hassani was given the Embrace Award. 

In this film, 9-year-old Shahrokh has to make a decision about whether or not to embrace their true gender identity, their true self in face of the intolerance within their family and village.

“Rickshaw Girl” by Bangladeshi director Amitabh Reza Chowdhury won the Best of Fest Award, while the Indian drama “Dostojee” by Prasun Chatterjee received the Milos Stehlik Global Impact Award.

The Milos Stehlik Global Impact Award for short went to the animated film “More Than I Want to Remember” by American director Amy Bench.
 
The short animated movie “Hush Hush Little Bear” by Mara Linina from Latvia was selected as the Best Production for Young Children.

The short animation film “New Moon” by Jeff Le Bars and Jérémie Balais from the United States received the Programmer’s Choice Award.

The Girl Empowerment Award went to “Abby” by John Urbano from the U.S., while the Stem Discovery Award was given to “The Wind and the Trees” by Canadian director Todd Allan Stewart.

The French animation “Letter to a Pig” by Tal Kantor was awarded the Liv Ullmann Peace Prize for Short Film.

The Dutch filmmaker Sia Hermanides was picked as the Emerging Director for her feature film “White Berry”, while the Ukrainian short “Me. My Eleven Years. War.” by Marusya Shuvalova won the Promise Award.
 
Another Promise Award was also given to “Yangtze” by the American directors Daniel Kim and Benjamin Kim.

Photo: A scene from the Iranian drama “The Apple Day” by Mahmud Ghaffari.

MMS/YAW